Realization of ubiquitous society has been approached where information processing is performed by a computer network and its convenience can be enjoyed at various scenes of social life. A word “ubiquitous” is Latin which means “existing everywhere”, which has been used as meaning of “there is no consciousness of a computer and information processing utilizing a computer is naturally integrated into our life environment”.
As typical examples of such information processing, train tickets, an electronic road pricing system on highways, electronic money, and the like are known. In addition, spread of an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) has also progressed where merchandise management which has been performed by a bar code conventionally has been performed by an IC tag to which transmission and reception of data have been performed by wireless communication. An IC tag is not only convenient for merchandise management but also is considered as a means for providing consumer benefit information.
A dedicated reading device has been required for an IC card or an IC tag, and there has been an inconvenience in that content stored in a semiconductor chip has not been able to be directly confirmed without the dedicated reading device. In view of this, a non-contact IC card provided with a display function, in which a display portion is provided for the IC card, has been considered (e.g., see Reference 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2003-44808 and Reference 2: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2003-223622).